'Mass' Mailings

I have a user-base of roughly 5000 members. I have never contacted my users before but now I'd like to inform them that my site has been upgraded. The email itself doesn't need to be very flashy, just a simple text message informing my members of the upgrade.

What would be the best way to do this? I have a feeling that copying 5000 addresses into the BCC: line SmarterMail may cause it to fail. Is SmarterMail an option for this? Should it be done through code? If I do it through code, can the SMTP server handle this load? Will it be seen as SPAM?

Thanks.

 

The best way going about this would be to send the emails through your code using localhost as your outgoing SMTP server.

We have some sample code available to you in your knowledge base to help get you started.

However there are some limitations that you should be aware of so that all your emails are delivered and you are not abusing the server.

The following knowledge base article is our limitations on the number of recipients you can send to per message.

Also please review the mass email section of our service usage policy:

Mass Emailing
DASP does not allow the use of their services for mass mailings. This includes all mailing lists, legitimate opt-in or not. Email usage in excess of 5000 emails per account per 24 hours or 1000 emails per account per hour is not allowed and could result in suspension of email services, account suspension, and/or account termination. For these types of mass mailings, a third party mass email service should be used.

 

If I host 2 domains does it mean that I have 2 accounts and I ca send 2x5000 emails per day?

 

Just to be clear if you have two separate accounts, meaning you have two completely different control panel logins, then yes each account would have their own resources and limits.

If you mean you have two domains pointing to one account, then no you would only have a 5000 email limit per day for that account.

 

I am trying to test my email code on my local machine before I launch to the server. Obviously specifying 'localhost' won't work from my local box, so I have it pointed to my SMTP server, but can't seem to get it to connect to the SMTP server. My web.config looks like so:

Code:

    <mailSettings>
      <smtp>
        <network defaultCredentials="true" host="smtp.cheatsheetwarroom.com" port="25"/>
      </smtp>
    </mailSettings>

Is there anything special I need to need to do in order to make this work? Do I have to provide credentials or anything? Here is the exception:

 

This is what I use:

Code:

<system.net>
	<mailSettings>
		<smtp from="[email protected]" deliveryMethod="Network">
			<network host="smtp.crystalcms.co.uk" password="my_password" userName="my_username"/>
		</smtp>
	</mailSettings>
</system.net>

 

I tried that but no luck. Are you using your DASP username/password or your SmarterStats username/password?

 

It's the user/pass for the email account.

 

Indeed - I've a SmarterMail account setup solely for the purpose of sending email from e.g. [email protected]

 

Still no luck for me. What exactly is the username? When I log into SmarterStats I don't enter a username, I enter an email address. I've tried my 2 email addresses with the passwords and neither seem to work. My web.config looks like this:

I can ping smtp.cheatsheetwarroom.com so I obviously have a connection, so something must be wrong with my login.

 

Port 25 being blocked by your ISP perhaps? Unless you specify the port attribute in the network element, .NET will use the default port 25 for outbound mail.

Why not try and and configure a local email client using the same credentials and settings?

I believe SmarterMail is also accessible on the alternate port 587.
More info here:
https://support.discountasp.net/KB/...not-send-outgoing-mail.aspx?KBSearchID=309395 and here https://support.discountasp.net/KB/c316/email.aspx

 

I've found that to be true in the past, try port 587 as Joe stated. ;-)